Shawdesh desk: India has detected first cases of new omicron sub-variants-BA.4 and BA.5, the highly transmissible omicron variant of coronavirus.

India confirmed the two cases of new omicron variant of coronavirus in its two southern states-Tamil Nadu and Telengana, according to a statement issued by the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) last evening.

“A 19-year-old woman in Tamil Nadu and an 80-year-old man in Telangana have been tested positive for the BA.5 sub-variant of the virus,” it said.

The statement however said that the patients have shown mild symptoms and been fully vaccinated…they had no travel history.

Earlier, a South African national was reported positive for the BA.4 sub-variant of Omicron on arrival at the Hyderabad airport.

“Contact tracing of the BA.4 and BA.5 patients is being undertaken as a precautionary measure,” the INSACOG said, adding these sub-variants have not been associated with disease severity or increased hospitalisation.

Meanwhile, the daily caseload of Covid-19 haS been increasing in India as it registered a total of 2,226 new cases and 46 virus related deaths during the last 24 hours across the country.

With the fresh cases, India’s total Covid-19 caseload stood at 4,31,38,393 while the total death toll reached 5,24,459, according to Indian ministry of health and family welfare data released this morning.

However, reports from Jeddah said that Saudi Arabia has banned its citizens from traveling to sixteen countries, including India following the re-outbreak of Covid-19 and the rapid surge in the number of daily Covid-19 infections over the past few weeks.

The sixteen countries where the citizens of Saudi Arabia are banned to travel apart from India include Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Libya, Indonesia, Vietnam, Armenia, Belarus, and Venezuela, reported Gulf News.

In another statement, the Indian health ministry said that the India’s Covid-19 vaccination coverage has exceeded 192.38 crore till 7 am today.